There is No Maximum to Human Potential

Getting to Know All About You

One theme surfaces frequently these days in our presentations to leaders of organizations, and consumes those of us who are trying to help create best-practice companies that attract and retain top talent. That theme is, know your employees well, better than they know themselves. 
 
Knowing an employee well is a key element of performance management, and we are stressing that heavily as we shed the traditional tools many organizations still use. These outdated tools include backward-looking employee appraisals that occur infrequently. Instead of that approach, we place our highest priority on coaching, a development-based strategy that looks forward by setting goals and establishing a plan to achieve them. This forward-looking kind of management asks coaching leaders to work with employees to set and reach their goals, after assuring they are aligned with the company mission.
 
A fundamental fact to acknowledge about this kind of coaching for performance is that although employees are alike in many key areas, they are different in significant ways. No single coaching/managing style fits all employees. This is a difficult idea for many managers to grasp, and it can be overwhelming if a conscientious manager believes he must memorize the names of his employees' children and spouses.  While knowing all those names is a nice thing to do, it is not imperative. But getting to know employees is an imperative, and it is less time-consuming and more enjoyable than playing the churn game – hiring employees for jobs they don't fit, leaving them to flounder, then replacing them six months or a year later and wondering what happened. 
 
Let's use Fred as an example of someone we need to get to know. Through assessments, we already know
that Fred has a high learning index and energy level, measures low on needing to control others or the situation, and high on manageability. What we do not know is whether the job we want Fred to do requires these competencies for successful performance. We also do not know:  

• How Fred fits with the rest of the team.
• How Fred fits with his manager/coach.

 
Obviously, in addition to getting to know Fred's competencies, we have to comprehend fully what we want him to do and what makes people in that role successful. Knowing all of these things allows Fred's manager to form a coaching strategy that will close the gaps, if any, between his capabilities and job requirements. 
 
Now let's look at the phrase "one size does not fit all" as it applies to managing people. Perhaps another way to say this is, don’t generalize or make assumptions about people based on age, gender, ethnicity or any of the other qualities that make Fred appear similar to Joe. As similar as some employees appear to be, to presume that two women, two men, two young people or two people of the same ethnic origin will think and act like each other because they share some of the same traits is a foolish oversimplification. That kind of thinking ensures we will be mired in yesterday's management rut.   
 
Here are some ideas about getting the right people into your organization from the start, then getting to know them: 

• Know your organization's culture well enough to talk about it. This includes the business strategy, the vision of top leaders, how employees view one another, and how workers treat each other.
• Communicate with employees. Go beyond regular meetings and memos. Take frequent walks through all departments.

Getting to Know All About You
 
Find out what is going on by talking to people. Figure out what they are thinking. How? Ask them.

• Ask for feedback about resources and other critical issues. Keep the channels of communication open and flowing freely. 
• If you want your employee rewards program to be effective, knowing your people is essential. Instead of planning rewards around the CEO's interests and needs, find out what workers want. Special incentives should be tailored to recognize the person who performed well.
• People change. So do their job interests, their energy levels and their competencies. It's the coach's job to know them at every stage in their lives and to change the motivation program to match their changing skills and interests. 
• Know yourself. It's much easier to understand other people if you get to know the inner you first, the things that make you tick, the job tasks that you enjoy and the ones that you do not, how you work with teams, and your compatibility with others.

Jim Sirbasku, CEO                                
Profiles International

How to Make Every Hire Count

The leader of a large U.S. organization was asked if he planned to fire an employee who made an expensive mistake. "No," said the CEO, because he viewed the "mistake" as valuable training. "You can't put a price on what she learned," he said, "and the lesson should benefit this company, not our competitors." The employee not only survived the mistake, but she also corrected it. Her innovations positioned the company as an industry leader.

Not all leaders would view the employee's mistake the same way, but this particular executive was thinking smart by thinking ahead. He knew the expense of termination, recruitment, hiring, and training. He was confident in his hiring decisions because his company uses a best-practices hiring process. His managers ensure that each new employee is the best person for the job. Mistake aside, the CEO knew that the employee who erred was a good fit for her role.

Can we all say the same things about our hiring methods? Making every hire the best hire possible is a goal we should strive for all the time, but it is even more important when the economy is ailing. Leaders cannot afford hiring mistakes because turnover is too costly. Add up the costs of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training while a job remains open for weeks, perhaps months. Why spend this money if you can hire the right person and avoid the turnover?

Below are crucial questions that result in hiring the best candidates. Leaders can examine their own practices by asking themselves these questions when thinking about job candidates, as well as current employees:

• Do I know how each job supports our company's key objectives?
  Your organization may be behind the curve if job descriptions have not changed with your revamped plan of action. If employees are performing their jobs the same old way, they are holding the company back. Make sure top leaders buy into the strategy and share it with employees down the line so that every worker knows how to put the plan into action.

• Do we have a policy of considering highly qualified internal candidates first when organizational opportunities arise?
  Internal "hiring" demonstrates that you believe in the training practices of your company and in your employees' accomplishments. Such a policy encourages top performers to take initiative and exercise creative thinking. You don't have to train them in crucial aspects of the job, such as the job's scope and how it relates to other employees and departments, because they already know how the company works.


• Do managers use objective evaluation criteria based on known outstanding performers in the position?
  If you want to ensure that each worker fits her job, measure how top performers in the same position do their jobs. Then apply the same assessment to candidates for the position and see how well they match the top performers. This approach works because it applies objective standards to the position instead of requiring you to rate a person via subjective standards or to "hire with your gut."


• Is our compensation competitive based on current market rates for the job?
  Paying a salary commensurate to what employees can earn in similar positions is critical to keeping your workforce motivated and attracting top talent. Organizations can compete in many areas—work environment, benefits, growth opportunities—but expecting top performers to stay with you because you offer these things is not realistic if they can earn significantly more money doing a similar job elsewhere.


• Do we apply a consistent selection process to all candidates?
  If the answer is yes, it means that your selection processes are objective and fair. These are important, not only because you want to do the right thing, but also because legal challenges to employee selection standards are expensive. The best employee selection process ensures that selection standards are job-related, validated, and standardized.


• Do we include key stakeholders in our employee selection process?
  Key stakeholders are those affected, for better or worse, by our operations, those who have an interest in what we do, and those who influence what we do. That includes almost everyone, but a big-tent approach is profitable: Inc. Magazine reports that "organizations with more effective hiring systems rank higher in financial performance, productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and retention."


• Are we training our interviewers in our employee selection process?
  Once we determine that we want structured interviews—those in which questions and tasks are chosen beforehand, and that are designed to ensure consistency—it is imperative that we coach our interviewers. The process is likely to go more smoothly if interviewers understand it, buy into the reasoning behind it, and know what to do. The unstructured interview is weak for purposes of identifying the best candidates.


• Are we giving interviewers guidance to help them probe deeper into a candidate's suitability?
  According to Leadership IQ, a firm that provides research and executive education to top companies, a study of 20,000 newly hired employees showed that “46 percent of all new hires fail within 18 months." This happens not because the new employees lack technical skills, but because they are not coachable, have the wrong temperament, are not motivated, or demonstrate other problems "that never get assessed in the interview." To catch these mismatches, screening interviewers need expert coaching to help them look beyond technical skills and ask the right follow-up questions.


• Are we conducting comprehensive reference and background checks on job candidates?
  Leaders might view reference and/or background checks as a bother when they "know" someone is right for a position. But employment experts estimate that almost one-third of all resumes contain false or exaggerated information. According to a Purdue University newsletter, falsified information consists mostly of expanded dates to cover employment gaps.

• Does our orientation process for newly hired people help them become productive faster?  A Bersin & Associates/Randstad case study shows that productivity measures increased by 25 percent among employees who participated in an onboarding training program. Employee job descriptions can help by communicating the company's direction and telling the employee where he fits in the big picture.
  

Is your company set to handle employee mistakes and economic battering? It will be if you are hiring only the best.

Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International

The Sun Always Comes Out Eventually....even in Seattle

I took this shot from my office on my cell phone today and was inspired to write a few words.  This view reminds me of life.  We could be in a time of dark clouds but the sun will eventually come out...even in Seattle.  This is a reminder that the current economic conditions will pass and we will have sunshine again.  We just need to remain strong and focus on taking positive actions on areas we can control--and stop dwelling and fretting over areas we cannot control.